Six months after the U.S. Justice Department alleged that Louisiana's admission standards for lawyers violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, the state Supreme Court has settled the case. The agreement will limit how Louisiana handles applicants with mental health issues, the Justice Department announced.

For years, candidates for admission to the Louisiana bar -- law students or lawyers from other states seeking to practice in here -- had to answer questions on state applications about their mental health diagnoses and treatment. Those who noted mental health issues often wound up getting only temporary admission to practice in Louisiana and could be required to turn over their psychiatric records and attend mandatory treatment sessions, even if their doctors said they were fine.

"It struck us as invasive and extremely burdensome," said attorney Julia Graff of the Bazelon Center, a Washington advocacy group that filed a Justice Department complaint in 2010 against the state Supreme Court. "Louisiana was making inquiries and then using that information and was employing stereotypes and assumptions about what that person was like."

The questions were fairly typical to those faced by would-be lawyers in other states. But the way Louisiana's admissions committee followed up was unusually invasive, Graff said.

While Louisiana has a duty to protect citizens from unscrupulous or incompetent lawyers, Justice Department investigators reported in February that rules targeting candidates with a specific disability -- regardless whether they had committed misconduct -- violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

Among other practices that concerned the Justice Department, candidates who listed a diagnosis of mental illnesses such as depression or bipolar disorder could then be saddled with a temporary admission and required to turn over their treatment records and to meet with psychiatrists every few months, even if their doctor said such treatment was unneeded. Several candidates for the Louisiana bar said in the federal review that they had been practicing in other states without incident.

The same application asked numerous questions about misconduct or other potential red flags, ranging from a criminal record to bankruptcy filings to professional discipline in another state, that should be of more concern than mental health, Graff said.

A new, revised questionnaire will require only that an applicant divulge details of their psychiatric history if they wish to include it as an explanation for prior misconduct, according to the settlement. Where candidates have conduct problems related to mental health, the state now must come up with an individualized treatment plan.

The state must pay out about $200,000 in compensation and damages to bar candidates who took on added expenses to meet the old requirements. And it must re-evaluate pending candidates under the new rules.

In announcing the Louisiana settlement, the Justice Department said it has pending cases in Vermont and Connecticut, as well against the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which devised the questions.